On Thursday, a special NIA Court in Mumbai directed all accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case to be present before the Court on Dec 19 when the case will be taken up for hearing next.
Out of the 7 accused in the matter, 3 accused including LT Col Purohit, Sameer Kulkarni & Ajay Rahirkar were present before the Court today. The Court took note of their presence & directed all accused to be present in-person before the Court.
Besides these three, BJP MP Pragya Thakur retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay, Sudhakar Dwivedi & Sudhakar Chaturvedi are also accused in the case. They have been charged under various sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), the Explosive Substances Act & the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The charges include Sections 16 (committing terrorist act) & 18 (conspiring to commit terrorist act) of the UAPA & Sections 120(b) (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt) & 153(a) (promoting enmity between two religious groups) of the IPC.
Six people were killed & over 100 injured when an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon, a town in north Maharashtra, on Sept 29, 2008.
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